Top Gear‘s Racy Humour: Murdering Prostitutes Is Hilarious!

Having spoken before about the often misogynist culture of motorsport, I can’t say this one really surprises me, but it sure as hell disappoints and angers me: Jeremy Clarkson, the popular host of BBC’s Top Gear, reckons it’s okay to make gags about killing sex workers!

During the show, Clarkson joked about truck drivers, claiming they only cared about petrol prices and murdering prostitutes.

“This is a hard job and I’m not just saying that to win favour with lorry drivers, it’s a hard job,” Clarkson said as he was shown driving a Renault Magnum truck into a brick wall.

LOL, Clarkson! Particularly when you consider, as the article mentions, the very recent (January this year to be precise) jailing of English truck driver and serial killer Steve Wright, who murdered five sex workers in Ipswich in 2006. On that topic, watch the BBC go into spin overdrive!

The BBC said Clarkson’s comments were designed to “comically exaggerate and make ridiculous an unfair urban myth about the world of lorry driving, and was not intended to cause offence”.

tina_sparklesaid

Stevensaid

is it a touch funny that on a website/blog based on railing against negative gender stereotypes, and in response to an article on poor taste comments about people getting killed… the first comment to pass moderation uses both negative gender stereotypes, and wishes death upon someone?

Anyway, I read on another website a comparison to people using the term “go postal” without fear of backlash. Is it just the timing of this so close to Wright’s conviction? or something else? (news articles only mention Steve Wright, I haven’t seen mention of the lorry driving Yorkshire Ripper)

limeysaid

Jeremy Clarkson was not making jokes about the death of the prostitutes you name. He was making a joke about a false stereotype, and it was funny.

This kind of humour exists in all aspects of life. For the darker parts of life its often called Black Humour. The point is never to mock the disadvantaged, the point is to remember that life can be fun as well as harsh.

If you really want to get petty I am sure you could find someone who could get upset about any joke you choose to mention.

Imagine how miserable life would be if humour was not allowed to engage with the tough and emotional aspects of life.